"It really only matters to us up here in the stands," said Genoa Township's Jim Conley, who came prepared with an umbrella and a seat cushion.
But, fans didn't seem all that worried either, as the grandstands were packed and rain earlier in the day made the "soup" in the "hole" that much deeper.

"You can get hooked on this stuff," Conley admitted.

Sisters Crystal Deweese of Morris and LeAnne Deweese of Howell are in big trouble already. Their 4-year-old sons, Jack Deweese and Chase Marentette, respectively, are hooked.

"Whoo hoo," Jack cheered, with his fists pumping in the air when a truck he picked as his favorite finally made a successful run through the 125-foot track of sloppy mud that was more than 3 feet deep in places.
"We get into tractor pulls, too," Crystal Deweese said.

The draw of the Mud Bog, the Deweese sisters agree, is that it's loud and fast and the mud really flies.

"Oh no," Chase said. "Sometimes they get stuck."

The mud races are broken up into different classes of competition. Entries range from regular four-wheel-drive sport-utility vehicles to modified trucks with more than 3,000 horsepower.

Winners of the mud drag race are determined by fastest time through the course, while the mud bog race winners are those who go the farthest through the deep mud course.

"We do it for fun," said Ortonville's Joel Newsome, a competitor in a 2005 Lincoln Aviator dubbed "Hot Rod Lincoln." "If you do it for money, you're doing it for the wrong reason."